A pejorative term for King's College London, generally used by students at its rival institution, University College London. The term manages to convey a sense of KCL's being mediocre in both academic and social terms: a polytechnic was, in the UK, a college offering mainly vocational degrees, widely considered to be inferior to the older universities, and with an attached social stigma. The Strand is the London street where 'Strand Poly' has its main campus (although it has spread to the South Bank and beyond.)

She applied to Cambridge, but they rejected her, so he ended up at Strand Polytechnic!

He got his philosophy degree at Strand Polytechnic, and now he's working at McDonalds.